Books...a Love Story

I’ve always been a book worm. Huge. I was the girl that walked down the hall in high school with a book in front of her face. People dodging out of my way, so they didn’t run me over. I would much rather have spent my time reading than playing video games or going to parties. I imagine I was viewed as a bit of an odd duck. My reading was so prolific that by the time I was out of high school I had read nearly the entire fiction section for both the school and local public library. (This sounds really impressive, but I grew up in a tiny town. Like, no stop light, tiny).

My obsession has continued throughout my life and even today it isn’t unusual for me to read upwards of three to four books a week (depending on many factors including how much time I have, how long the books are, and which genre they are). If I had to guess as to the total number I’ve read in my lifetime, it would have to number in the thousands.

While, it is generally the love of story that most people focus on when they talk about such things, today I want to focus on the book itself.

The love of books

I love books. The actual physical book. A well-made book is glorious. The fan of the paper, the smooth way it opens. The way the paper smells. There is nothing like it. I recently got a

hard cover edition of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and it is a beautiful thing. It’s a relatively slim volume in a light tan color. The paper is smooth and a lower weight than most other books. Most importantly it was cut the correct way, so the bend to the paper is good. Most people don’t realize that paper has a grain to it. If you cut it the wrong way, it doesn’t bend as smoothly and tends to crinkle. Some printers, particularly for large books and cheaper mass-market paperbacks, don’t take as much care to save money. But this one was done the right way. It was also bound well, so it opens and can be held open easily.

I may be a little obsessed.

I grew up reading paper. And for a long time, I had a loyal and monogamous relationship with the form. Partially due to availability and partially due to preference. I am in that weird little generation between the Gen-Xers and the Millennials. We’re called Xennials because we’re a little bit of both. Meaning that our childhood was entirely analog, while our teen and college years became progressively more digital. No social media, no cell phones, and though we had a computer at home, it was used primarily for games that came on floppy disk (remember those?) or as a glorified typewriter. We lived in the sticks and had Dial-up internet. And back then most websites weren’t the prettiest things to look at.

Even after the internet and digital media became more readily available, I read exclusively in paper format for many, many years. As time went on, I made exceptions for the random fanfiction or news article, and as I entered college academic papers. But I still preferred paper. In fact, I would often print things off rather than read them on the screen. Or in the case of academic articles, access the print version in the library or through interlibrary loan whenever possible. In my defense, in those days most of the digital versions were kind of crappy. In my experience, they were usually low-quality scans of the print journals, so it wasn’t unusual for them to be hard to read, or even missing parts. Even when I did find a decent one, I still didn’t like the glare of the computer screen or being tethered to the desktop, and I preferred to have something in my hands.

The rise of digital

Over the years, the quality of the scans improved, and then disappeared for the most part as digital files became the norm for submitting writing to publishers and academic journals. It also helped that many websites became more aesthetically pleasing, and that laptops, smart phones, and wi-fi became a thing. (Seriously, how did we live before?)

eBooks came on the scene in the late 1990s, but the first handheld e-reader of note was the Kindle which debuted in 2007, followed shortly by the Nook. They both used E-Ink. A revolutionary new technology that mimicked paper. I was intrigued, but it wasn’t until my parents bought me a Nook for Christmas that I gave it a try. At first, I wasn’t sure I liked it.

The E-Ink solved one of my major concerns about digital media. And it was portable, so that solved another.

But I, like many others, complained that it just didn’t feel the same. An e-reader just doesn’t have the same tactility as a paper book. All the things I love about a book are absent. And, it sounds crazy, but I had to change how I held myself when I read. After a couple of decades of holding my reading material one way and getting my hand position and posture just right to be able to sit for hours while not suffering fatigue…it was a big change.

But I stuck with it, and eventually, I found there were many things I liked about it once I got used to it. It’s convenient for one. Having ready access to millions of titles and works (many of which I might not have had access to due to the limitations of physical availability, etc.) without having to leave my house appeals to the instant gratification side of me (and makes my inner accountant groan). Another plus is that I can fit the nearly 1500 books and short stories (and growing) in less space than 1 physical book. For someone who lives in an apartment and is a habitual re-reader it is a game changer.

Now-a-days I read on my e-reader, phone, and laptop as much or more than I read physical books.

The enduring Audiobook

Another alternate format for books that I resisted for a long time is the audiobook. These have been around longer than eBooks, getting a start in the 1930s on records. They got a big boost with the rise of the cassette tape in the 1970s, and then transitioned to CDs, and are now available as digital media. Audiobooks have certainly endured the test of time as a way to get your story on. Perhaps the largest and most well know digital audiobook company these days is Audible. But there are others like Scribd, Chirp, and even (predictably) Audiobooks.com.

For a long time, just like eBooks, I eschewed audiobooks in favor of print (or later eBooks). I did this for a few reasons. First and foremost, of course, was my love of a handheld book. Plus, before digital, most audiobooks were expensive! Unless you were able to get them from the library or a thrift store, they would set you back upwards of $40 versus the same book in a mass market paperback at $7.99. In addition, much of my recreational reading up until I got into grad school was fiction. I tried, really, I did, but I just don’t like listening to fiction. My experiences of listening to fiction on audiobook are a narrator trying to do all the voices and sometimes sound effects. Some are better at it than others, but it still reminds me of kid story hour. Honestly it knocks me right out of the story every time. I’d rather just read it.

And, if I’m being honest, for a long time, I had this notion that it was cheating. That if you listened to it, it wasn’t reading. Which, technically it isn’t, but I’ve come to believe that it doesn’t matter how you absorb the words, the important part is you do. But my identity was so tied up in the romance of being the girl with her head buried in a book that I dismissed audiobooks out of almost spite. In fact, I was quite snobby about it. My attitude has changed a bit over the years.

A while back, thanks to an endorsement by a YouTube personality that I have come to enjoy, I gave it another chance. With the digital era and the introduction of apps, audiobooks dropped drastically in price and gained the same convenience of the eBooks. I got a free 3-month trial to Audible and tried it. I still can’t do fiction. It still bugs me. But I have found that I do enjoy it with non-fiction. After grad-school, I had begun consciously reading more non-fiction as a way of rounding myself out and learning new things. But, for me, most non-fiction doesn’t pull me in like fiction does. It doesn’t transport me somewhere else. And so, while I find it interesting, it takes effort for me to sit down and read it. So, I thought, why not do it when I am in a place I can’t be lured away by something else? In the car is a perfect place. You see, I commute to work. It’s not terribly far, but about 20 minutes in the morning and 30-45 minutes in the evening depending on traffic. Normally I would listen to music, and sometimes I still do, but I had the thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to get in my non-fiction.

That was almost two years ago, and I’ve never looked back. My commute has become a place where I learn. I’ve listened to such books as Essentialism, The Secret Life of Trees, and Weird. I’ve also listened to numerous business and personal finance books, self-improvement books, and biographies. I’ve listened to books about different cultures, and travel, and science. Just by embracing a different format, I have vastly increased my repertoire of genres.

A new appreciation

So where does this leave me?

Holding a book in my hand and getting lost is still one of my favorite things to do. And there is still something about walking into a bookstore or library and wandering among the stories. Feeling the weight of the book in my hand and fanning the pages. But these days, I think that particular love is more nostalgia than anything else. Physical books with always be my first love, but I’ve decided to make room in my heart for eBooks and audiobooks and any other format that may be available in the future. Each format has its pros and cons. Each one has its place, and while the love of a good old-fashioned physical book is a true and profound thing for me, at the end of the day it’s really about the story. It’s about learning, growing, satisfying curiosity, and getting lost in another world for a while. And ultimately, as long as I can continue to do that, who cares what the format is?